We all have played Mario then Super Mario – the amazing video game. In my case, the center offered many games likes Contra, Spartan, Car Racer etc. but I always liked a game called, ‘Super Mario’. I liked its sound, powers, jumps and lot many things in the game. However I never wished my Super Mario to die but I lost it in most of my attempts. After losing each game I used to restart and play, but lost every time I played. After my ninth standard, I hardly got any time to play the Mario but the question about the end of Mario always made me think. Life went on. Like everyone, I completed my studies and joined corporate world. In profession most of us do not have a God Father so we can say we have to work and learn by experience. We all commit mistakes make more enemies than friends but we always work hard to perform well, to excel. We get promotions and keep on rising on the corporate ladder. Many a times we fail, it is something like maintaining strong & long term relationships and networking. I always; still wonder about the magic of relationship building and networking skills. One fine day, I found Super Mario game from my school stuff and I started playing the same. After reaching the 3rd stage I lost my Mario and stopped playing the game. And that was the moment, it struck me that; it was not Super Mario who died but it is the player who kills Super Mario. Then I started thinking about all those things which I could have saved but lost due to ignorance or ABC reasons. The first thing which came to my mind was my relations, which started well but never nurtured to lifelong. I gave it a long thought and discovered: ‘Our Relationships Are Like Super Mario, They Will Never Die Until We Kill Them’. In a game we never wish the Super Mario to die, similarly no one ever wish the relations to end up with fights/misunderstandings/grudges and what not. If Mario needs to be nurtured with powers to clear different stages of the game, the same way relationships needs to be nurtured with love, care, and most importantly communicating with your friends even when you don’t get chance to meet regularly. With the world becoming faster, people are becoming vulnerable. Life is demanding and hence relationships start taking a second place in the run. Why? Because we are all busy, we have deadlines, targets, bosses etc. And then we want to have an attitude, a lifestyle, money, power and what not. We want everything. And in the chase all we start losing out on is focus. Like in Mario – once you lose the focus, shifts priorities you end up losing Mario. You only save a Mario when you cross all stages with him an earn points. Similarly, if you leave the skill of networking, it is difficult that you emerge a leader and if at all you do, you lose out on points. Most people do not realize when and where they end up breaking a network or a connection. This realization only happens when we need a person who we haven’t connected from a long time. Save the connection – don’t kill the Mario. Besides your network allows you to help people in a better way. It is a trait we must work on as a skill. Effective networking is like saving the Mario and winning the game.
Indian Education System – A Real Concern!
A lot is been said & discussed on the Indian education system after the very popular 3 idiots. But my post certainly is not around just the concerns raised about the pressure created over the students by the best of internationally renowned institutions. Recently, 44 deemed universities have been de-recognized and the newspapers say, almost 2,00,000 students will bear the brunch.Most of these are marked as money making with lacunae ranging from infrastructure, facilitators; their expertise in the programs offered etc, the system is collapsing with so many private institutions making their way to become the Alma Maters for lakhs of students. The students are being disguised on various levels, graduation, post-graduation, M.Phil, Doctorate etc. Now what worries me is – Is that too a lacunae in the system that students get to enroll themselves in such institutes without prior check on the backgrounds? I mean not those who are enrolling for the post graduate programs.What made me write about this issue is a simple help I was asked for and decided to offer to an Aspiring Manager. Yeah, it’s again about the management schools- Oh! There are a number of them and I have been writing about this earlier also. Read that here. Anyways, the reason what intrigued me was the kind of study material provided by the B-schools. The pedagogy they follow and more then that the way they expect to create future managers. I myself have studied at a B-school and that’s the reason why I get worried when I discover the prevailing loopholes in management education. Some of the major problems:- The methodology of imparting knowledge. – Complete Ignorance to experiential learning. – Pedagogy – Do they know the purpose of them being the facilitators? – Course Material – Management seems to be a synopsis of study material of +1 to graduation. – Case Methodology – Are we even in the process of incorporating the same? Do we know the significance? – Examination Pattern – This too is a great cause of failure of the B-school system. Students are not even aware of what is the application of knowledge. Most of the B-schools are still offering the knowledge & not the skill set which enables application of that knowledge. Nevertheless, these are just the instant observations i could made. I am sure there is still a lot to say & more to do about this.
